Sussex police confirmed they were called to the airport after the pilot refused to fly with the 'disorderly' group.

A spokesman said: 'At 11.35am on Monday police were called to an outbound Thomson flight due to leave Gatwick North Terminal for Costa Rica after the captain refused to fly with a group of 25 male passengers, all adults except for one 14-year old boy, some of whom had been disorderly on the aircraft.

'Officers escorted them from the aircraft to landside where they dispersed.'There was no violence as the officers escorted them away, and no evidence of criminal offences on the aircraft or in the airport.'

A Thomson spokesman: 'Thomson Airways would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced by customers on board flight TOM038 from London Gatwick Airport to Costa Rica, which was unfortunately delayed due to an operational issue and a customer incident on board.

'We operate a zero tolerance policy in relation to any disruptive behaviour and several customers were asked to leave the aircraft. We worked as quickly as possible to ensure the other customers could get away on their holiday.

'Customer and crew safety is our priority at all times and we would like to reassure everyone that incidents of this nature are extremely rare.'